Multi-speed serial interface for media access control and physical layer devices

ABSTRACT

A network device including a media access control (MAC) device, and a physical layer (PHY) device. The physical layer (PHY) device is in communication with the MAC device via (i) a first serializer/deserializer (SERDES) and (ii) a second SERDES, wherein the first SERDES and the second SERDES operate at a fixed data rate. The MAC device comprises a translator configured to, in response to the MAC device operating at a data rate that is less than the fixed data rate, i) append a predetermined number of bits to data in a first data stream to be transmitted to the PHY device, and ii) subsequent to appending the predetermined number of bits to the data in the first data stream, duplicate the data having the appended predetermined number of bits to generate a second data stream at the fixed data rate.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This present disclosure is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/229,376, filed on Aug. 22, 2008, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/891,930 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,418,514), filed on Aug. 14, 2007, which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/646,601 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,425), filed on Aug. 21, 2003, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/449,328, filed on Feb. 21, 2003.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to network devices, and more particularly to an interface between a media access control (MAC) device and a physical layer (PHY) device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Conventional Gigabit Ethernet switches use a Gigabit media independent interface (GMII) to link media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) devices. GMII is a parallel interface that includes traces that run simultaneously at a fixed frequency between the paired MAC and PHY devices. The GMII interface works well for Gigabit Ethernet switches with one port or with relatively few ports. When additional ports are added, problems may arise relating to the relatively high number of pins, synchronization, cost and interference.

A reduced GMII (RGMII) decreased the number of pins by increasing the data frequency. The lower number of pins reduced the cost. However, running more energy through each trace increased the likelihood of interference. A serial gigabit interface was developed to solve problems associated with the GMII and RGMII parallel interfaces. One version of serial gigabit interface employs eight pins per port, which are allocated to four channels. Pairs are used for the receive (Rx) data, Rx clock, transmit (Tx) data, and Tx clock. The serial gigabit interface employs a low voltage differential swing (LVDS) format.

While parallel connections allow high data rates over short distances, serial links permit longer connections and reduce synchronization issues. Despite having a higher transmit frequency, interference is not as problematic because the signals do not travel in synch. Another version of the serial gigabit interface embeds the clock signal within the data channel and further reduces the number of pins per port to 4. The pins support two data streams, Rx and Tx, each with a single pair of pins. One pin in each pair is dedicated to the signals moving from the MAC device to the PHY device. Another pin is dedicated to traffic moving in the opposite direction, from the PHY device to the MAC device. This format also typically uses the LVDS format. The serial gigabit interface format also allows serializer/deserializer (SERDES) components to be integrated on the same chip.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a network device 10 includes a MAC device 12, which includes a gigabit MAC 14 and a physical coding sublayer (PCS) device 16, which implements IEEE section 802.3z, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. An output of the MAC device 12 is input to a first SERDES 20, which provides a serial link at a fixed data rate. A second SERDES 22 communicates with the first SERDES 20 and is connected to a PCS 26 of a PHY device 28 that includes a PHY 30. The PHY 30 communicates with a medium 34. The PCS 16 may perform 8/10 bit encoding as specified by 802.3z, which increases the data rate to 1.25 Gb/s. A serial management interface 36 provides control information between the MAC and the PHY, as specified by IEEE 802.3z. Because the first and second SERDES 20 and 22 must operate at 1.25 Gb/s, problems are encountered when the MAC 14 operates at lower data rates such as 10 or 100 Mb/s.

Referring now to FIG. 2, an exemplary network device 50 such as switch or a router includes a multi-port PHY device 52 and a multi-port MAC device 54. The PHY devices 52-1, 52-2, 52-3, . . . , and 52-N communicate with mediums 56-1, 56-2, 56-3, . . . , and 56-N. For example, the medium 56-1 may be copper operating according to 10BASE-T. The medium 56-2 may be copper operating according to 100BASE-TX. The medium 56-3 may be copper operating according to 1000BASE-T.

The MAC device 54 includes 10/100/1000 MAC devices 54-1, 54-2, . . . , and 54-N, which are connected by data translators 58-1, 58-2, 58-3, . . . , 58-N and physical coding sublayer (PCS) devices 60-1, 60-2, . . . , and 60-N (collectively referred to as PCS device 60) to SERDES 62-1, 62-2, . . . , and 62-N (collectively referred to as SERDES 62). The SERDES 62-1, 62-2, . . . , and 62-N communicate with SERDES 64-1, 64-2, . . . , and 64-N (collectively referred to as SERDES 64) that are associated with the PHY devices 52. The SERDES 64-1, 64-2, . . . , and 64-N are connected by PCS devices 66-1, 66-2, . . . , and 66-N (collectively referred to as PCS device 66) and data translators 67-1, 67-2, . . . , 67-N to PHY devices 52-1, 52-2, . . . , and 52-N. In some implementations, the PCS devices 60 and 66 perform 8/10 bit encoding and operate in accordance with IEEE section 802.3z.

Referring now to FIGS. 2, 3A and 3B, the PHY device 52 and the MAC device 54 operate using the serial gigabit interface. Control and data bytes are passed serially. Since the data rates can be 10 Mb/s (10BASE-T), 100 Mb/s (100BASE-T) and 1000 Mb/s (1000BASE-T), the 10BASE-T and 100BASE-T rates are adjusted to 1000 Mb/s to provide a common data rate for the SERDES 62 and 64. Therefore, the data translator 58 duplicates the data at 10 Mb/s 100 times and the data at 100 Mb/s 10 times. The reverse process is performed by the translator 67. The data at 1000 Mb/s is not altered by the data translators 58 and 67.

In 10 Mb/s and 100 Mb/s modes, data is typically packaged in nibbles. Prior to replicating the data, a combiner 69 combines two adjacent nibbles into a byte. A byte duplicator 70 duplicates bytes 10 times when receiving 100 Mb/s data streams and 100 times when receiving 10 Mb/s data streams. The output of the duplicator 70 is a Gigabit Media Independent Interface (GMII) data stream that is input to an encoder 71. The encoder 71 may perform 8/10 bit encoding. The encoder 71 receives the bytes from the duplicator 30 and outputs a 1000BASE-X data stream.

Going in the reverse direction, a bit decoder 75 receives the 1000-BASE-X data stream from the SERDES 62. The decoder 75 outputs a GMII data stream to a sampler 76. The sampler 76 samples 1 out of 10 bytes for 100 Mb/s and 1 out of 100 bytes for 10 Mb/s. A byte separator 77 separates the bytes into nibbles. The serial gigabit interface uses a modified form of 1000BASE-X autonegotiation to pass speed, link, and duplex information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In general, in one aspect, this specification describes a network device including a media access control (MAC) device, and a physical layer (PHY) device. The physical layer (PHY) device is in communication with the MAC device via (i) a first serializer/deserializer (SERDES) and (ii) a second SERDES, wherein the first SERDES and the second SERDES operate at a fixed data rate. The MAC device comprises a translator configured to, in response to the MAC device operating at a data rate that is less than the fixed data rate, i) append a predetermined number of bits to data in a first data stream to be transmitted to the PHY device, and ii) subsequent to appending the predetermined number of bits to the data in the first data stream, duplicate the data having the appended predetermined number of bits to generate a second data stream at the fixed data rate.

Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a network device that includes MAC and PHY devices that operate at 1000 Mb/s and that are connected by a SERDES according to the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a network device including multi-port MAC and PHY devices according to the prior art;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are functional block diagrams of data translation performed according to the prior art;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of a network device that includes MAC and PHY devices that operate at 10/100/1000 Mb/s and that are connected by a SERDES according to the present invention;

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate data translators according to the present invention in further detail;

FIG. 6 illustrates a multi-port implementation of the MAC/PHY pair according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a table illustrating copper to a serial gigabit interface according to the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is an autodetection state machine for switching between a conventional serial gigabit interface and the serial gigabit interface according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following description of the preferred embodiment(s) is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses. For purposes of clarity, the same reference numbers will be used in the drawings to identify the same elements.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a network device 80 according to the present invention is shown. The network device 80 includes a MAC device 84 and a PHY device 88. The MAC device 84 and the PHY device 88 are connected by SERDES 90 and 94, which operates at a fixed data rate such as 1.25 Gb/s although other data rates can be used. The MAC device 84 and the PHY device 88 are capable of operating at 10 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s and/or 1000 Mb/s, in other words, the MAC and PHY are IEEE section 802.3ab compliant.

The MAC device 84 includes a 10/100/1000 MAC 98 that communicates with a data translator 100 according to the present invention. The data translator 100 appends and duplicates data to provide the desired higher data rate. The data translator 100 outputs translated data to a PCS device 102, which codes the data. In one embodiment, the PCS 102 codes the data in accordance with IEEE 802.3z.

The PHY device 88 includes a PCS 108, which decodes the data that is received from the SERDES 94. A data translator 110 reverses the operation that was performed by the data translator 100 and outputs data to the PHY 114, which communicates with a medium 116. A MDC/MDIO 90 operates as described in IEEE section 22 of 802.3, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Referring now to FIGS. 5A and 5B, the data translator 100 is shown in further detail. When the MAC 98 is operating at 1000 Mb/s, the data translator 100 passes the data (without change) to the PCS 102. In one embodiment, the PCS 102 encodes the output of the data translator 100 using 8/10 bit encoding that is IEEE 802.3z compliant. In one implementation, Tx_Err/Rx_Err are encoded in a /V/ ordered set.

When the MAC 98 is operating at 100 Mb/s, the MAC 98 outputs nibbles (4 bits) at a rate of 100 Mb/s. The data translator 100 includes a data appender 120 that appends 4 additional bits to form a byte, which increases the data rate to 200 Mb/s. Any 4 bit pattern can be used. For example, 0101 can be added to the MSB positions and the nibble can be located in the LSB positions. The 4 appended bits can also be located in the LSB positions, in the middle of the byte, and/or interspersed. The output of the data appender 120 is input to a data duplicator 124. The data duplicator 124 duplicates the bytes five times to generate an output data stream at 1000 Mb/s, which is output to the PCS 102. The PCS 102 encodes the data and outputs the data to the SERDES 90. In one embodiment, the PCS 102 encodes the data using an 8/10 bit encoder in accordance with IEEE section 802.3z.

In one implementation, in both 10/100 modes, MII collision information is derived from the status of the Rx_Dv and Tx_En signals. In both 10/100 modes, Tx_En and Tx_Err are repeated 50/5 times, respectively.

Data flowing in the opposite direction from the PCS 102 to the MAC 98 is decoded in an opposite manner. The data sampler 130 samples one of every 5 bytes of the data and outputs data at 200 Mb/s. A data remover 134 removes the appended 4 bits, recovers the nibble and the data rate is reduced to 100 Mb/s.

When the MAC 98 operates at 10 Mb/s (as shown at 135), the MAC 98 sends data to a data appender 140 and a data duplicator 144, which operate in a manner that is similar to the data appender 120 and the data duplicator 124. However, the data duplicator 124 duplicates the data 50 times instead of 5 times. Continuing with the example set forth above, the MAC 98 outputs data at 10 Mb/s to the data appender 140, which appends 4 bits to each received nibble. The data duplicator 144 duplicates the data 50 times. The PCS 102 encodes the data as described above and outputs the encoded data to the SERDES 90. In the opposite direction, a data sampler 150 samples one of every 50 bytes and outputs data at 20 Mb/s. A data remover 154 removes one or more appended bits to recover the nibbles and the data rate is reduced to 10 Mb/s. In FIG. 5B, the translator 110 reverses the steps performed by the translator 100.

In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIGS. 4, 5A and 5B, no special control information is passed in-band over the SERDES path. MAC/PHY autonegotiation procedure and status reporting is performed through the MDC/MDIO, as described in the IEEE section 802.3 specification, which is an out of band signal. The link status going to the MAC layer is based on a link read from the PHY and the PCS Sync_OK signal from the 802.3z PCS device.

Referring now to FIG. 6, an exemplary multi-port implementation is shown. A first port 160-1 includes the MAC 98-1, the translator 100-1, the PCS 102-1, the SERDES 62-1 and 64-1, the PCS 108-1, the translator 110-1 and the PHY 114-1. The PHY 114-1 is connected to the medium 116-1. A second port 160-2 includes the MAC 98-2, the translator 100-2, the PCS 102-2, the SERDES 62-2 and 64-2, the PCS 108-2, the translator 110-2 and the PHY 114-2. The PHY 114-2 is connected to the medium 116-2. An nth port 160-N includes the MAC 98-N, the translator 100-N, the PCS 102-N, the SERDES 62-N and 64-N, the PCS 108-N, the translator 110-N and the PHY 114-N. The PHY 114-N is connected to the medium 116-N.

If one of the nibbles is a control symbol, then the byte that is presented to the 1000BASE-X PCS is mapped according to FIG. 7 below. Data nibbles can be replaced by control symbols. Even though data is passed one nibble at a time instead of one byte at a time, the start of frame delimiter (SFD) and the bytes in the frame preferably line up in the correct even/odd nibble boundary. In one embodiment, an extra nibble is inserted (if needed) to line up the SFD with the frame boundary.

Since idle code in the 1000BASE-X side is 2 bytes long, the first of the five (or 50) bytes of the preamble may be deleted (similar to the conventional serial gigabit interface described above possibly dropping the first of 10 (or 100) bytes). The circuit should be tolerant of the byte loss. During idles, the number of idle symbols need not be divisible by 5 or 50. Therefore, the circuit must be able to tolerate any number of idle symbols (of course with some lower bound) between packets.

In one implementation, the PHY device is able to automatically detect whether the incoming data stream is in a first or conventional serial gigabit interface mode or the second serial gigabit interface mode described herein. The switch side indicates the first serial gigabit interface mode or the second serial gigabit interface mode but does not auto detect.

In 1000BASE-X, the idle order set normally runs with the disparity negative prior to transmitting a first idle order set, such as the /K28.5/D16.2/idle order set. If a packet ends in a positive disparity, then a second idle order set (such as the /K28.5/D5.6/idle order set) is sent to make the disparity negative again. Afterwards/K28.5/D16.2/is sent as long as there is idle on the line to keep the ending disparity negative.

On the switch side, the /K28.5/D16.2/idle order set is replaced by the /K28.5/D1.2/idle order set when in the second serial gigabit interface mode. If the PHY device sees the /K28.5/D1.2/idle order set three times in a row, the PHY device switches into the second serial gigabit interface mode. While in the second serial gigabit interface mode, the PHY turns off the first serial gigabit interface autonegotiation and starts to transmit the /K28.5/D1.2/idle order set instead of /K28.5/D16.2/idle order set. If the PHY subsequently sees /K28.5/D16.2/idle order set three times in a row, the PHY switches to the first serial gigabit interface mode and then forces a restart of autonegotiation in the first serial gigabit interface mode.

When switching back and forth between first serial gigabit interface mode and the second serial gigabit interface mode, there is no need to check whether a packet is active prior to switching. Preferably, the switching takes effect immediately. Note that the /K28.5/D5.6/idle order set should be output as is.

In a preferred embodiment, the /K28.5/D1.2/idle order set is chosen to replace the /K28.5/D16.2/idle order set to prevent disparity differences. Also there is minimal bit pattern difference in the 10 bit code. The /K28.5/D1.2/idle order set is 100010_(—)0101, 011101_(—)0101. The /K28.5/D16.2/idle order set is 100100_(—)0101, 011011_(—)0101. Note that this substitution should only apply in the context of the idle order sets and does not apply when sending packet data or sending configuration ordered sets.

In the second serial gigabit interface mode, link, speed, and duplex information are passed out of band via the MDC/MDIO. In the first serial gigabit interface mode, once the PHY links up, autonegotiation in the first serial gigabit interface mode is initiated to pass on the link information prior to packets being forwarded. In second serial gigabit interface mode, the PHY forwards packets immediately. It is up to the switch to ignore these packets until the switch polls the link status via MDC/MDIO. It is also assumed that the switch will not transmit any packets prior to receiving the correct speed information of the PHY.

Those skilled in the art can now appreciate from the foregoing description that the broad teachings of the present invention can be implemented in a variety of forms. Therefore, while this invention has been described in connection with particular examples thereof, the true scope of the invention should not be so limited since other modifications will become apparent to the skilled practitioner upon a study of the drawings, the specification and the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A network device comprising: a media access control (MAC) device; and a physical layer (PHY) device in communication with the MAC device via (i) a first serializer/deserializer (SERDES) and (ii) a second SERDES, wherein the first SERDES and the second SERDES operate at a fixed data rate, wherein the MAC device comprises a translator configured to, in response to the MAC device operating at a data rate that is less than the fixed data rate, i) append a predetermined number of bits to data in a first data stream to be transmitted to the PHY device, and ii) subsequent to appending the predetermined number of bits to the data in the first data stream, duplicate the data having the appended predetermined number of bits to generate a second data stream at the fixed data rate.
 2. The network device of claim 1, wherein the fixed data rate is 1.25 Gb/s.
 3. The network device of claim 1, wherein each of the MAC device and the PHY device is IEEE section 802.3ab compliant.
 4. The network device of claim 1, further comprising a management data clock/management data input/output (MDC/MDIO) in communication with the MAC device and the PHY device.
 5. The network device of claim 4, wherein the MDC/MDIO is configured to operate in accordance with IEEE section 22 of 802.3.
 6. The network device of claim 1, wherein the MAC device further comprises a physical coding sublayer configured to perform 8/10 bit encoding on the second data stream to generate a second data stream at the fixed data rate.
 7. The network device of claim 6, wherein the physical coding sublayer is configured to perform the 8/10 bit encoding on the second data stream as specified in IEEE section 802.3z.
 8. The network device of claim 1, wherein the network device comprises a Gigabit Ethernet switch.
 9. A method of operating a network switch, wherein the network switch includes i) a media access control (MAC) device, and ii) a physical layer (PHY) device in communication with the MAC device via a first serializer/deserializer (SERDES) and a second SERDES, wherein the first SERDES and the second SERDES operate at a fixed data rate, the method comprising: in response to the MAC device operating at a data rate that is less than the fixed data rate, appending a predetermined number of bits to data in a first data stream to be transmitted to the PHY device, and subsequent to appending the predetermined number of bits to the data in the first data stream, duplicating the data having the appended predetermined number of bits to generate a second data stream at the fixed data rate.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the fixed data rate is 1.25 Gb/s.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the MAC device and the PHY device is IEEE section 802.3ab compliant.
 12. The method of claim 9, further comprising: subsequent to duplicating the data having the appended predetermined number of bits, performing 8/10 bit encoding on the second data stream to generate the second data stream at the fixed data rate. 